The future of gaming stands to gain a lot from the immensely exciting potentials of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). In fact, so many other fields including education, e-commerce, and marketing, are beginning to see the huge benefits of virtual reality and augmented reality. These two technologies are popular for delivering an enriched experience that combines the real world and a virtual one with enhanced, 3D visuals. While many people easily confuse the two, there are however some key differences.
What is Augmented Reality (AR)?
Augmented reality is accessible to almost everyone with a smartphone, which gives it an efficient edge over Virtual Reality as a gaming and branding tool. Augmented reality transforms the ordinary, physical world into a more colorful, visual one by projecting virtual characters and pictures via the camera of a phone or a video viewer. In the real sense, Augmented reality is simply adding to the real-life experience of the user.
What is Virtual Reality?
VR advances these exact components to a different level as it produces a completely computer-generated simulation of an alternate world. The immersive capability of these simulations can develop almost any place or visual conceivable for the player leveraging state-of-the-art equipment like sensors, computers, gloves, and headsets.
How Augmented Reality Works?
Augmented reality makes use of computer vision, depth tracking, and mapping so as to display the desired content to the user. With this functionality, cameras are able to collect, transmit, and analyze data to present digital content relevant to what the users are looking at.
In AR, the physical environment of the user is enhanced in real-time with contextually appropriate digital content. Users can experience augmented reality (AR) with special hardware or with a smartphone.
How Virtual Reality Works?
Virtual reality focuses on the simulation of vision. The user is required to place a VR headset screen in front of their eyes. Hence, nullifying any engagement with the real environment. In virtual reality, 2 lenses will be placed between the screen. Users are expected to adjust their eyes according to the individual movement of the eye as well as its positioning. The screen visuals can be rendered through the use of an HDMI cable connected to a mobile phone or PC.
Virtual reality makes use of speakers, goggles, and sometimes handheld wearables for the simulation of a real-world experience. In VR, auditory, visual, and haptic (touch) stimulation can also be employed, so the presented reality is immersive.
What is the Difference Between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality?
At the end of the day, the difference between VR and AR can be seen in terms of their required devices and the respective experiences they produce:
- While Augmented reality makes use of a real-world setting, that of Virtual reality is entirely virtual. With Augmented Reality, the users still interact with the original world while engaging with virtual settings closer to them. By utilizing virtual reality technology, VR users are ‘separated’ from the physical world and are immersed in an entirely fictional world.
- Augmented reality users have control over their presence in the physical world; Virtual reality users on the other hand are controlled by the system
- A headset device is required for virtual reality, but a smartphone can be used to access augmented reality
- Augmented reality enhances both the real and virtual world while virtual reality only augments/improves an imaginary reality
How Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality operate together?
It will be wrong to convey that AR and VR are designed to work independently of one another. In most cases, both technologies are integrated together in order to generate an enhanced engaging experience. When these innovative technologies are combined together to teleport the user to an imaginary world, they give a fresh dimension of interaction between the real and virtual world.
What Jobs are there in the AR and VR Industries?
Although these technologies are still new and evolving, they, however, offer limitless opportunities for employment and business. The VR and AR market is forecasted to reach an estimate of $209.2 billion by 2022. AR and VR technologies are revolutionizing industries via hardware and software development, research, and graphic design just to name a few.
The following are some in-demand careers that are improving and developing AR and VR technology:
- Graphic design
- Software engineering
- Software development
- Software maintenance
- Project management
Final Thoughts
As VR and AR technologies become more involved in how mankind works, learns, and plays, it is expected that the sector will only continue to advance. Several other industries — such as travel, aviation, healthcare, and automotive to name just a couple —are investing in AR and VR solutions, particularly in training applications.
Businesses are constantly searching for new and innovative ways to reach consumers, and VR and AR technology — along with personalization technology like CDPs — have proven themselves to be reliable and effective tools for consumer engagement, product visualization, and storytelling. The utilization of these technologies for marketing is still in its early stage and, considering their huge potential, we expect breakthrough developments in 2022 and beyond. Recent trends are signaling a promising time for VR and AR, with the potential for both technologies to become an interesting part of your customer journeys.
